Years added to pictures in search for missing kids

Police in China will promote facial recognition technology nationwide to help reunite abducted children with their families, a senior official at the Ministry of Public Security said last week.

The imaging technology, based on artificial intelligence developed by Tencent Youtu, can work out an adult picture of a missing person based on a photo taken when the person was a child, Chen Shiqu, deputy director of the ministry's criminal investigation bureau told China Daily in an interview.

"Even though a child may have been abducted many years ago and has grown up - and his appearance has greatly changed - faces can be matched through cross-age facial recognition," he said.